


In Your Eyes

by TheShortestManOnEarth



Series: Jam Bud Week 2020 [5]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff, Humanity Prompt, Jam Bud Week 2020, OC Child of Steven and Connie, Post Series, adult characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:34:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25178512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShortestManOnEarth/pseuds/TheShortestManOnEarth
Summary: After years of marriage and growing up together, Steven still worries sometimes about what it is that makes him human. Is he aging the same as other humans, as Connie?Sometimes all it takes is a little change in perspective to find that the best view of humanity is through someone else's eyes.Lots of fun fluff, some serious talking, and Connie and Steven's kid being adorable.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran & Steven Universe, Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Series: Jam Bud Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673545
Kudos: 20





	In Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Hey All!
> 
> I've had this idea in my head and some of it written for a while (and I needed a break from the angst in my two multi-chapter fics) so I decided to write this out over the last few days. This fic was inspired by LightandDarkLove's Day 3 story for Converse Week One shots. You should go read their collection for Jam Week, it's awesome. 
> 
> I couldn't come up with a good name for Connie and Steven's kid, so if you're wondering why I write around the name, that's why. I'll edit this later when I do come up with the name. Eventually. (Tomorrow for sure). *Cough* 
> 
> I'll be posting the updates for "Someday" and "Albatross" shortly. 
> 
> Again, if anyone wants to beta or just discuss SU stuff, let me know and I'll link you to my Discord. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy reading this one shot. This won't be the last fic I do with Connie and Steven as parents (I have at least two more planned/partially written). If you have a request you'd like me to write, let me know. I have a lot of idea but I'm open to new ones. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone for your continued support of my work. I truly appreciate it.

Friday nights were a special time in the Maheswaran-Universe household. Every other day of the week Connie was at work late. This often sparked the question from Steven of whether Connie left any work for anyone else. Of course, they both knew he was kidding, but that didn’t stop Connie from tickling Steven into submission like they were children. Where the world was concerned, Steven was a giant of a man with a thick mane of locks on his head and now fully adorning his once hairless round face. He looked intimidating to the average person with his bulking mass but to the woman he had married and grown up with, he was a sweet pushover who wanted nothing more to please the people he loved. 

On Friday evenings Connie would stop on her way home from work to grab groceries to prepare a special meal to celebrate the end of the week. After all the fighting she and Steven had gone through with the gems, treasuring the small moments in life was well overdue. She had arrived home to a curiously quiet house. Usually Steven was up with their daughter as she giggled her way up and down the halls. 

The littlest member of their family had just learned how to walk and shortly after how to do what Steven affectionately referred to as a “toddler gallop”. It wasn’t terribly fast as far as speeds were concerned, but that fact didn’t stop Steven from slowly chasing his kid down the hallways pretending she was the fastest kid alive as she bumbled around their furniture. Connie would have to stop the race and remind Steven that they had to be careful of the toddler’s lack of complete control. Though she knew she didn’t really have anything to worry about. Steven would always scoop the giggling child up before she could crash into anything and blow raspberries on her forehead. She would grin and then scream “On!” This was Steven’s cue to let her touch his gem to make it glow. “On!” The glowing was more entertaining than any toy that money could buy. 

The first time the tiny hands had grabbed ahold of Steven’s gem, Connie had panicked. Her body moved instinctively to gently redirect their daughter’s fingers to anything else. But as the eyes of her best friend came to rest on the little fingers pressed against one of the facets, she stopped. The gem flickered and their daughter’s eyes widened in awe. Steven’s eyes were near stars at the sight of his child practically hugging his gem. 

Connie walked through the house and set the bags down on the kitchen counter. She figured Steven was upstairs and would be down shortly. He was typically drawn to the smell of food. It wouldn’t be long before he made his appearance after Connie began cooking. 

She got to work setting the oven to the appropriate temperature and began washing the vegetables. Time passed and she still hadn’t heard any sign that Steven was around. Connie set down the knife she was using to cut the vegetables. The former swordswoman had deftly sliced everything into even sized cubes proving she was skilled with the blade in more ways than one. There was no doubt that Connie could handle all of dinner herself. But Steven knew his way around the kitchen far better and Friday evenings were family time. Though the curly haired man had yet to make an appearance. 

“Steven? Are you home? Can you help me with dinner?” Connie called out, hoping if he were nearby, he would join her. 

“Uh, I’m a little stuck at the moment.” His voice was loud enough that she could tell he was close by. The words struck her as a little odd though not quite worrisome. She stepped away from the stove, turning the heat off as she went to look for her husband. 

Connie made her way down the hall to the living room and found Steven comfortably sunken into his favorite chair with a book in his hands. In his lap, with her head resting on his broad stomach like a pillow, was their daughter. Her arms were tightly wrapped around his torso, pinning him to the chair. His eyes went to Connie in a look of utter defeat. 

She sighed, shaking her head. “Biscuit, why do you read to her in the middle of the day?” Connie asked, clicking her tongue with a smirk. “You know it puts her to sleep.” 

“I can’t say no to those eyes.” Steven objected. “Have you seen them?” He gave her a pleading look. She leaned against the door jamb. 

“I have, many times.” Connie said. Though she didn’t mention how it was on his face that she’d seen the joy filled expression and wonder filled eyes that could melt her heart several times over. What she opted to say instead to cover her brief slip from correcting Steven’s lapse in judgment was, “ I was there when she was born, remember?” 

Steven’s ability to pout, despite his age, was incredibly unfair. He pressed his lips out. Then his eyes widened to lock with hers. It was not helping with Connie’s resolve. There was a way he looked when he was staring at her, that centered around her, pulled her close to his core, the essence of his being, and in those moments she felt like she was part of him. In those eyes she could be lost forever and never want for a map or a way to come back. 

“I dunno,” Steven said, unaware of the adoration trip his wife had taken just now. “I guess she could have gone _poof_ and burst out of the ground.” 

“Steven, that’s not how human babies work.” Connie replied with a hint of amusement. They both knew that he knew this. But with Steven, she could never be sure where he drew the line in humor and reality. After all, he’d believed that she once wrote an essay on raccoons having heat vision. 

“She is part gem.” Steven answered with a shrug. She opened her mouth and then shut it. He wasn’t technically wrong. But he was also off on a bunch of other facts that drove her logical mind in circles. When it came to magic, that line of what was logical grew incredibly blurry. Their daughter was too young to show any signs that she had inherited any of her father’s gem genes. But then again, no one had ever been half gem before Steven. So, it was all new territory that they would have to explore as it came up. “Maybe she did pop out a hole in the ground like the gems.” Steven was now smirking at her, all semblance of serious argument gone from his tone. 

“For that,” Connie said with a grin. “I am not helping you get up.” Steven’s jaw dropped and he gasped in mock horror, then followed by an actual groan. 

“Whaaat? Connie…. Please.” Steven said. She pretended to ignore him. Finally, she heard a sigh and let out a chuckle. She made her way over and gently lifted their daughter up. Steven smiled. 

“You’re the best.” He said, slowly standing and rubbing his eyes. They felt tired from all the reading. He continued to squint at the open book in his hands. Connie caught his gaze as his eyes struggled to focus. 

“Are you okay, Biscuit?” She shifted their daughter into one arm so she could run her fingers through his curls with the other. He leaned into the touch. 

“Mmm. I guess my eyes are a little tired.” He closed them as she continued to play with his locks. She loved how soft they were. It was hard to believe she had gone so long without being able play with his hair. When they were kids, she had always wanted to touch it, but didn’t want to scare him off by asking to do something so personal. Later she realized it was because she wasn’t used to the level of physical affection Steven was. He loved hugs, head pats from the gems, and when they began dating, he loved threading his fingers through Connie’s at every opportunity. 

“Maybe we should have Mom take a look at them.” Connie said as they made their way to the kitchen. Steven shook his head. 

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” He offered her a smile, but she already had her phone out, typing a fast text message to her mother. It was difficult to deter Connie when she was in caretaking mode. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to be careful. Out of the corner of his eyes he caught her biting her lip as she typed. With a long sigh he slipped his hands under her arms and took their child into his broad arms, simultaneously fixing Connie with a firm look. 

“I promise I’ll be okay,” Steven said, tracing his fingers across her arm. While she didn’t relax as he intended, she broke her concentration to return the affection by cupping his cheek with her free hand. A loud wail broke their tender moment. 

“Hungeee!!” Their child yelled, startling both parents into looking down at the annoyed two-year old giving Steven a defiant expression that he was certain she learned from her mother. There on her face was the Connie patented expression of narrowed eyes, the crossed arms, and even without the one word, his name, that could bring him down to Earth from the stars, his child had yanked his willpower away. She wriggled her way out of her father’s arms and then began to run laps around the kitchen island. Connie’s eyes found Steven’s as she imparted her thoughts into the jerk of her head to the upstairs to indicate this conversation wasn’t over. 

Steven maneuvered behind her and began to take out tonight’s choice of protein: chicken, a simple favorite of their daughter. He cubed it into small pieces before adding it to the pan on the stove. The two moved in and out of each other’s space with practiced ease that flowed like their sparring. Weaving, dodging, passing ingredients as they were prepped, and lingering as they brushed against each other. At one point he bumped into her and staggered. She caught him easily and they shared a familiar smile as she kissed him. 

“Ewwwwww!” 

Both sets of eyes went to the little girl sticking out her tongue at her parents. Steven straightened and ruffled his daughter’s hair. “Not _ew_. Your Mom and I love each other.” 

“Ew.” The two-year-old insisted. All in one word she had managed to state that “I think it’s gross and that’s final.” Steven sincerely hoped she would calm down as she got older with the intensity. But something told him that she was just getting started. Her eyes filled with passion that as of now had no strict direction, but he was sure she would find her way. 

Steven made one last attempt to convince his child otherwise. “You know, Little Bit,” Steven said, using the nickname he and Connie had come up with for their child. Since they couldn’t come up with a name that had to do with Jam Buds, Steven suggested Fry Bits. Connie vetoed calling their daughter “Fry Bits” but settled into calling her “Little Bit” after a while. “You’re a combination of our love too.” Connie smiled at the way Steven interacted with their kid. He crouched down so his towering form could be level with the tiny girl. 

She puffed out her cheeks and prodded his nose pointedly, “Daddy. Ew.” Steven wrinkled his nose in surprise as Connie burst out laughing. 

“Come on, Little Bit,” She said, “Let’s go set the table.” Steven watched two halves of his world as they set the table. His best friend demonstrated how to set the silverware on top of the napkins the way she’d learned growing up. Steven had never had a sit-down dinner growing up. Truth be told, he still didn’t know more than their daughter about setting tables. There were so many things he learned after he left Beach City that he didn’t realize he’d missed out on. It wasn’t that he thought the Gems, or his father were bad for never giving him moments like this. But he felt a pang of longing every time he had dinner with his family now. His hand went to his gem. 

Pearl had given him a sense of what it was like to have a mother waiting on him to finishing playing and come in for a meal. But she wasn’t always around. Garnet was always on additional scouting missions even when the other two Crystal Gems were around. Amethyst only ate food or trash for the weird sensations, so the closest thing he ever got to a home cooked meal was going out for fry bits with Connie. 

“Biscuit?” He blinked. The table was already set, and Connie was at his side. “The food is burning.” Steven jumped and quickly turned off the burner. 

“Oh gosh,” He muttered, his voice almost going up the way it did when he was younger. As much as Connie loved it when she was reminded of the younger carefree Steven of old, the distant look he got as he spooned some food onto three plates didn’t give her a sense of peace or a fun stroll down memory lane. 

After dinner and tucking their daughter into bed Connie decided to break his reverie. The two got ready for bed, Steven brushing his teeth and going through the elaborate washing routine that even had Peridot asking questions. Not that Connie could complain. He always smelled so nice. She considered herself lucky to have found someone so considerate as Steven. 

As he came out of the bathroom, clad in his usual shirt and pajama bottoms, she found herself losing track of the things she needed to say to him. He came over to her side of the bed and leaned in to kiss her. He drew back just enough to be able to see her eyes as she responded in kind. From the small giggle, the way her eyes roamed over him, and her contented sigh, her reactions were everything to him. 

“Can we talk?” Connie said, setting her hand on his chest to gently stall him. Steven stared at her, clearly jarred out of a moment. He let himself sink onto the bed. It groaned under the weight of his massive form and hers. 

“I’m sorry I burned dinner.” Her hand went to his and squeezed it at the apology. “I should have been paying more attention.” 

“I’m not upset, Steven.” Connie said. She rubbed circles on his palm. He couldn’t place when she discovered that little motions like that soothed him. Maybe it was after his corruption when Connie set out to find every possible way to give him a way to ground himself. Throughout those weeks following the incident, he’d be in the middle of something and start losing focus, staring hard at a passing shadow no one else could see. “I do want you to be honest with me though.” 

Steven found her expression had lost its previous romantic playfulness. Unlike Steven, Connie could pull of serious at any time without any effort. Her first mode was as his Jam Bud, his partner in adventure, but she prioritized taking care of his wellbeing. Sometimes that meant postponing a romantic moment for a time to discuss something important. He nodded. 

“Were you telling me everything earlier? About your eyes?” Connie asked. Steven remembered the day he’d healed Connie’s eyes. Until that point, he had struggled to get his powers to work. He was sure that she would have stopped hanging out with him because he wasn’t a magical gem if he couldn’t even consistently summon his shield. She hadn’t asked him to heal her eyes. But in an afternoon Connie went from needing corrective lenses to wearing the frames without any lenses at all. The way that she had seen the world would forever be changed. 

How many ways had his powers altered her so she couldn’t look at the world through eyes unaffected by magic? Maybe she could have gone her whole life with glasses and seen human things, met a normal human, and just been Connie Maheswaran, president of all she beheld in her powerful gaze. That was a fantasy he etched of her his mind. It was hardly worth paying any mind to because he couldn’t change the past. But still, it cast a shadow over his mind, hiding the brighter parts of his life from view. 

“I don’t know what’s happening to my eyes. Sometimes I can see just fine, but other times I have to concentrate to see the letters on the pages.” Steven said. It made no sense. 

There were definite perks to having magic healing. For one, Steven never had to worry about any injury. Whether it was a paper cut or a broken bone, the gem powers always healed him without any conscious effort. He could heal any malady and move on. Additionally, he never had to worry about his family visiting the doctor too often because he could heal them too. Which came in handy given Steven’s anxiety around hospitals. 

As a part gem, he also aged more slowly than other humans. It wasn’t immediately apparent. He was just like other people on the surface outside of his gem. Even though he couldn’t get hurt as easily, he still got sick sometimes, and could bleed the same. As time passed, he noticed he wasn’t changing at the same pace as everyone around him. Greg’s hair had thinned and grown greyer as the years had passed. Whenever he saw Peedee the youngest Fryman seemed to be a little taller and filled out some the thinner qualities he had as a child. Jenny, Buck, and Sour Cream all looked older too. Buck looked more like his father every day and the former Mayor’s hair was completely gray now. 

Steven’s body had slowed slightly, but he still moved around with the energy of someone half his age. Connie had complained about how much slower her metabolism was than when they were kids or how she had trouble reading text sometimes. Every so often she’d comment on a gray hair she’d noticed. Though she had yet to produce one as evidence. Frankly, Steven hardly noticed. She still looked amazing as always in his eyes. 

“Connie, have I changed?” Steven asked. She furrowed her brow. From experience, she knew that Steven always had a question behind the one he initially asked. Here and now it was unclear precisely what was eating away at him. 

“You’ve changed a lot, but that’s not a bad thing,” Connie offered. It was hard to know from the way he shifted, his gaze looking down at his brightly colored pajama bottoms, if that had alleviated his fears. 

“I mean,” Steven started, stopping himself to think for a second about his wording. “Am I aging…like a human?” 

Understanding slammed into Connie, nearly winding her mentally. She rested her eyes on her childhood friend. Once upon a time he had been a member of the Shorty Squad, but no longer. He had grown several inches just in the short period of time after he moved out of Beach City. It seemed like the small town had curbed his growth in more ways than one. But neither the little boy who barely reached Connie’s shoulder nor the teenager who had once matched her in height, were sitting here with her. Steven was a few inches taller than her, broad shouldered, and the hair that had once trimmed at the nape of his neck now flowed freely down to brush against his shirt collar. Moreover, he had a different look in his eyes than he had back when they were kids. The way he used to jump into situations without any preparation, the recklessness, and his free-falling attitude, had all been replaced by a careful attentiveness. Most of it, she noted with adoration, was directed at their daughter. He didn’t miss a moment to be there for her. Steven had purposefully chosen a career that would allow him to be home for his child. 

She ran her fingers over the freshly shaven part of his jaw. “Every day.” She murmured. “I know it doesn’t feel like it, but we are growing up together and I love every day that I get to spend with you.” 

A sharp inhale followed that statement. He was crying again. But the smile on his face told her she didn’t need to worry. She reached over and grabbed the box of tissues from the bedside table. After dabbing, laughing, and talking, the two settled back against their pillows, hands clasped. 

Steven found as time passed that he had a better handle on his shapeshifting powers. He knew that part of why he was able to age was because he stopped thinking of himself as a kid. There would always be parts of him that were undoubtedly human, but others that he could choose. _No matter what_ , he thought, propping himself up on his elbow to look over at his best friend and wife, Connie would forever see him exactly as he was. Glasses or no glasses, her vision of him was clear. He was just Steven. Her best friend. Her chosen partner for life in all its messy glory. Maybe he had a gem that could be off putting to some, but then again, no human was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and feedback are appreciated!


End file.
